Question to the Leader of the House:

To ask the Leader of the House, with reference to paragraph 221 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work, how many answers to Written Parliamentary Questions have (a) declined to provide information on the grounds that it should be sought via the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and (b) withheld information that would ordinarily be disclosable under that Act in this Parliament; what steps he is taking to ensure departmental compliance with that principle; what data his office holds on the (i) number of such (A) answers and (B) subsequent corrections and (ii) departmental performance against (1) timeliness and (2) completeness standards; and if he will place in the Library a list of such answers, including UIN and date, broken down by department.

The information requested is not held by the Government. Data on response times to written parliamentary questions (PQs) is published following the end of every session by the House of Commons Procedure Committee.

I have written to all Members of Cabinet and spoken with Departmental Parliamentary Clerks to remind departments and Ministers about the importance of providing full and helpful responses to parliamentary questions.

As the Hon. Member will be aware, the Procedure Committee monitors departmental PQ performance and their sessional reporting continues to be an effective tool to hold Departments to account.